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Appendix 06: Critical Values for Dixon’s Q-Test

  • Page ID
    6642
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    The following table provides critical values for Q(α, n), where α is the probability of incorrectly rejecting the suspected outlier and n is the number of samples in the data set. There are several versions of Dixon’s Q-Test, each of which calculates a value for Qij where i is the number of suspected outliers on one end of the data set and j is the number of suspected outliers on the opposite end of the data set. The values given here are for Q10, where

    \[Q_\ce{exp} = Q_{10} = \mathrm{\dfrac{|\textrm{outlier's value} - nearest\: value|}{largest\: value - smallest\: value}}\]

    The suspected outlier is rejected if Qexp is greater than Q(α, n). For additional information consult Rorabacher, D. B. “Statistical Treatment for Rejection of Deviant Values: Critical Values of Dixon’s ‘Q’ Parameter and Related Subrange Ratios at the 95% confidence Level,” Anal. Chem. 1991, 63, 139–146.

    Critical Values for the Q-Test of a Single Outlier (Q10)
    α⇒ 0.1 0.05 0.04 0.02 0.01
    n
    3 0.941 0.970 0.976 0.988 0.994
    4 0.765 0.829 0.846 0.889 0.926
    5 0.642 0.710 0.729 0.780 0.821
    6 0.560 0.625 0.644 0.698 0.740
    7 0.507 0.568 0.586 0.637 0.680
    8 0.468 0.526 0.543 0.590 0.634
    9 0.437 0.493 0.510 0.555 0.598
    10 0.412 0.466 0.483 0.527 0.568

    Contributors and Attributions


    Appendix 06: Critical Values for Dixon’s Q-Test is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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